Special Features

State of the Game - D&D Online: Stormreach

It's been four months since the launch of D&D Online. What's changed, and where is it going?

Just about every fantasy role-playing game in existence owes some debt to Dungeons & Dragons, and that probably goes double for those massively multiplayer online titles. So it's somewhat ironic that an officially-sanctioned D&D MMO took as long as it did to emerge. In February 2006, almost a decade after Ultima Online took the first steps towards making this sort of game a mainstream phenomenon, Wizards of the Coast, Turbine, and Atari unleashed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach onto the world, and the reactions were mixed at best.

Far from a bad game, D&D Online's biggest weakness was that it was launched into a world spoiled by the accruements of the modern MMO -- solo-friendly gameplay, lenient death penalties, user-friendly designs and interface elements and the like. D&D Online, on the other hand, attempted to provide a decidedly "D&D" experience, one in which character advancement wasn't necessarily brisk, and one that forced players to join groups before embarking on anything of consequence.

It's been four months since the game's launch, and while it doesn't seem like a good deal has changed, it is clear that Turbine is mobilizing towards some really big changes. In this first installment of our new State of the Game column, we look at where Dungeons & Dragons Online stands today as compared to its release, and where it's headed.

Original GameSpy Score: 3 out of 5 starsReview Quote: "Turbine has attempted to strike close to the mark in regards to the game's pen-and-paper legacy, and by doing so seems to have compromised much of what makes modern MMOs compelling and attractive."

Population: According to MMOGChart.com, D&D Online is currently clocking in at around 90,000 subscribers. During E3, Turbine announced that the game had sold 300,000 units, and in recent talks with the team, it was hinted that the actual subscription numbers are much higher than represented on MMOGChart.com.

Major Updates: In addition functionality upgrades and tweaks to the game's systems, there has been one major "module" released thus far -- Module 1: The Dragon's Vault. This introduced the game's first raid encounter, pitting groups of 12 players against the most iconic D&D monster possible -- a fearsome red dragon. A selection of unrelated quests were also included with the update, most notably one in which players get to do battle with a deadly vampire. There are at least three more modules in the works for D&D Online, set for release in July, August, and a larger one with an unspecified date.

The Story So Far

As the first official, modern online manifestation of the game that arguably "started it all," D&D Online had a great deal riding on its shoulders when it launched this past February. Immediately, it was evident that the player base was roughly divided into two distinct camps: those who were primarily MMO players and wanted a compelling MMO experience foremost from D&D Online; and those who were pen-and-paper players above all and wanted a faithful electronic recreation of D&D. As should have been immediately obvious, it was very difficult to reconcile those two philosophies.

The launch was far from perfect, but in retrospect, without major consequence. There were a few niggling bugs at launch, but the more serious ones disappeared not too long after they were decried in the public forums. It wasn't long before there was a great deal of high-level characters running around. On the plus side, bugs clearly weren't stopping players from advancing through the game's content, but this exposed another fundamental flaw in the game at launch: the relative dearth of content.

Many players, especially those who were part of the beta test, knew the content intimately and veritably sped their way through the game. They didn't do it alone: newcomers fortunate enough to group up with these people were introduced to this aggressive play style, and many players (sometimes inadvertently) missed out on a great many quests, simply because they were only playing the ones that were most rewarding from an experience or treasure standpoint.